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26 April 2012

The City, a Battlefield

The militarization of the urban arena that
can be witnessed especially across the developed world renders the city an ever
more hostile location for its citizens.

Many articles have been written recently on
the topic of military urbanism and I would like to share some of my collected
bookmarks especially in relation to new surveillance techniques herewith to
illustrate the vast and multifaceted contemporary phenomenon.

Apart from surveillance drones another measure
is Scotland Yard’s free ‘wanted’ app which is called Facewath ID. The app will allow people to
see CCTV images of suspects in their area by using their smartphone’s location
services.

Already in use in certain locations in the
UK is Smart Water which is an
anti-criminal system using a liquid that contains a unique code. One
application of the Smart Water is via sprinkler systems that spray a burglar
with the invisible liquid which cannot be washed off for several months. The
unique code that is detectable under ultraviolet light then generates evidence
to connect a suspect to a specific location.

Various examples of new technologies of
surveillance evoke an even gloomier
image of a militarised city. Intelligent
geotextiles or Smart
Dust are still under development but can be imagined to be a substantial
part of our future cities’ surveillance systems. Smart Dust will be ‘comprised
of speckle-sized devices that can sense environmental conditions, such as
light, temperature and humidity. More importantly, they can gather civilian and
military intelligence. Their tiny dimensions mean they are difficult to detect and can squeeze through the narrowest of gaps in doors and walls. They can communicate with each other wirelessly, as well as transmit data to a nearby command center or remote satellite’.

To finish this list of links I would like
to point to an artwork dealing with these topics: Recent research and
developments in pollen forensics (forensic palynology) have led the artist Thomas Twaites to think about the
possibility of bee – policing. In his vision, developed together with James
French, a PhD student at the UCL
Department of Security and Crime Science, he imagined private person’s
plants being monitored by the police through analysing the bees’ pollen. This
method can be used to identify genetic manipulated plants or growing of illegal
substances. In this case nature in form of an insect becomes a means of power.
Similarly to bomb
sniffing military bees, these insects can be easily utilised to spy on
urban citizens under the disguise of security and safety.

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The city is made up of assemblages built of heterogeneous networks and associations. Multiple and overlapping enactments constitute urban life as a synchronous city.SYNCHRONICITY is a blog excavating these networks and setting them in relationship to each other. SYNCHRONICITYunderstands itself as an extended platform sharing myriad approaches in urbanism, landscape and architecture.